Hello, my name is Jo

My Story

Hello, my name is Jo, and I live in South London

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Prior to becoming a Professional Declutterer and Organiser, I had two very successful careers, starting work aged 16 at the Bank of England, before moving into investment banking, where I worked for 10 years. At aged 26, I gave up banking and travelled around the world and loved Latin America so much that I decided to study for a degree in Latin American Development Studies at the University of Portsmouth.

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​After graduating, I went onto work within the humanitarian world, working for the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) for 13 years, responding to every humanitarian emergency from the Indonesian Ocean tsunami in 2004, through earthquakes in Pakistan, typhoons in the Philippines, conflicts in the Middle East and health emergencies such as Ebola in West Africa. Through my work in creating order from chaos during humanitarian emergencies worldwide, I was awarded an OBE for services to global humanitarian emergency response and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Portsmouth for my role in humanitarian response and international relations.  

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After leaving full-time work in the humanitarian world in 2022 and a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), I decided to focus on my third career, creating order from a different type of chaos through professional decluttering and organising, channelling my autistic traits and a desire for order. Put simply, decluttering and organising brings me joy and I get a very deep satisfaction seeing places organised. I am also non-binary and queer, and so my business, Mx. Neat and Tidy was born.